Running-gear



(No Model.) I 4 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.. S. J. BLOCK. RUNNING GEAR.

No. 416,555. Patented Dec. 3', 1889.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SAMUEL J. BLOCK, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

RUNNING-GEAR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 416,555, dated December 3, 1889. Application filed December 26, 1888. Serial No. 294,725. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern/.-

Be it known that I, SAMUEL J. BLOCK, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of the city of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Running-Gear for Car-Trucks and other Vehicles, of which the following is a description.

My invention relates to all classes of vehicles which are subject to longitudinal and lateral shocks, and which are designed for such uses as to render it desirable to ease up these shocks as much as possible. Such vehicles are generally provided with'some form of spring to take up vertical jars or jolts; and the object of my invention is to devise a simple means to convert all horizontal movement of the body of the vehicle upon the runninggear into a vertical movement thereon, in order that both the weight of the body with its load and also the vertical spring may be made to offer a yielding resistance to these horizontal movements. I understand that others have heretofore attempted by means of various devices to accomplish the same result, and my invention is in the nature of an improvement upon such devices; and it consists in the interposition between the car or other vehicle and the wheels which carry it a simple little device, hereinafter described, which I shall call a rocker, and in the application and combination of said device to and with the various parts of the runninggears of different vehicles, all of which are specifically enumerated in the claims appended hereto.

It will be seen from .the drawings that-this device consists of a form of rocker resembling somewhat a flattened sphere, upon which the weight of the car rests, and which in turn rest-s either directly or indirectly upon the,

axle of the wheels.

Figure 1 is a face View of this rocker, lettered A, and Figs. 2, 3, and show vertical sections of different forms of the same. In the figures the rockerwill be seen to present two convex surfaces, upon the upper of which the beam B, which supports the body of the car, rests, while the lower surface of the rocker rests upon the beam C, supported upon the axle. To prevent slipping at these hearings the rocker is provided with projecting lugs or pins (1, Fig. 2, resting in the recesses I) 0, formed to receive them in the beams B C, respectively. It is obvious that this arrangement may be reversed and the lugs be placed upon the beam and the recesses in the rocker, as shown in Fig. 3, or both may contain recesses and separate pins or balls be fitted into the cavity formed by the two, as in Fig. 4. It is also plain that the convex surfaces may be placed upon the beams as well as upon the rocker, as represented in Fig. 17.

As all horizontal sections of the rocker A in the preferable form here shown are circular, all vertical diametrical sections will be alike, so that we may consider the section shown in Fig. 2 as any diametrical vertical section of the rocker shown in Fig. 1; and hence if we examine the operation of this rocker with reference to a movement of the beam B in the plane of this section we shall learn its operation with reference to a movement in any direction. It will be readily seen that a movement of the beam 13 toward the left, the beam C being relatively stationary, will tilt the rocker into the position shown in Fig. 5, separating the beams B and C and thereby converting this horizontal movement into a vertical one. The ratio of this vertical movement to the horizontal one can be varied as may be desired by varying the form of the rocker. As the rocker approaches more nearly to the form of a sphere the vertical movement diminishes until when the rocker becomes a sphere it disappears altogether.

On the other hand, as the rocker approximates a flat disk the vertical movement increases until it becomes so great that the rocker is practically rigid. The length and shape of the pins a must of course be governed by the amount of play that it is desired to give the rocker, their function being merely to keep the rocker in place and prevent the beams B and C from slipping thereon.

In the remaining figures of the drawings I have shown how this rocker may be applied to various forms of car-trucks and carriages.

Fig. 6 represents a six-wheel passengertruck with certain portions broken away, and shows two ways in which my device may be applied thereto. 'Figs. 11 and 12 are side and end views, respectively, of a four-wheel passengertruck containing the same device. Figs. 7, 13, and 15 are side views of freighttrucks embodying my invention. Figs. 8 and 14 are end views of the trucks shown in Figs. 7 and 13, and Figs. 9, 10, and 16 illustrate the application of the rocker to a carriage.

In Fig. 6, at the left hand, the rocker A is placed between the beam B, which supports the car, and the plank O, resting upon the hanger D. At the right hand of the same figure the rocker is applied to the hanger D itself, and an additional rocker A employed at the other end of the hanger. In Figs. 11 and 12 these two forms are combined, the bar 0 being extended to rest upon the rockers A, attached to the universal hangers D.

Convenient ways of applying this rocker to freight-trucks are clearly illustrated in Figs. 7, 8, 13, 14, and 15.

In carriages and other light vehicles the rocker may be interposed between the different portions of the springs, as in Figs. 5), 10, and 16, the ends of the same being broadened, as shown in Fig. 10, to furnish a bearing for the rocker in the case of a longitudinal shock.

I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent 1. The combination of the body of the vehicle and the support upon which it rides with a rocker A, interposed between the two, so shaped that a movement of the one with regard to the other in any direction will cause uwi them to separate, as and for the purpose stated.

2. The combination of the body of a vehicle and the support upon which it rides with a double convex rocker interposed between the two, provided with means to prevent its slipping upon either, as and for the purpose stated.

3. .The combination of the body of a vehicle and the support upon which it rides with a rocker A, provided with pins 61., fitting into corresponding recesses in the surfaces upon which the rocker bears, as and for the purpose set forth.

4. In a vehicle, a hanger D, provided at one end with a rocker so shaped that the swinging of the hanger in any direction will raise the load carried thereby, as and for the purpose stated.

5. In a vehicle, the hanger D,provided at each end with a rocker so shaped that the swinging of the hanger out of a vertical line will raise the load upon the rocker, as and for the purpose stated.

6. In a car-truck,'the beam 13, which supports the car, resting upon the rocker A, which itself rests upon the bar C, carried upon the rockers A, attached to the hangers D, substantially as shown and described.

SAMUEL J. BLOCK.

In presence of- HARRY BITNER, RoB'r. RYAN. 

